Cook your tofu in the toaster for sushi madness

Posted on Mar.20,2010

Recently, I was desperate for sushi. I also had a block of tofu that was desperate to be eaten. And I apparently had a toaster that was desperate to become potentially soy sauce flavored. So I combined all of these factors for beautiful harmony.

First, I marinated the tofu. Pretty lazily, as it involved me soaking these tofu slices in soy sauce for about 10 minutes at best. Foresight is not my strong suite, you see. After that, I waggled the slices best I could to get the excess sauce off, then popped these babies in the toaster. It had occurred to me that this might result in everything put into the toaster after this tasting like soy sauce as well, but it wasn’t a huge concern at the time. Also, several bagels later, I can confirm that this did not occur, in as much as I forgot about the soy-saucing of the toaster innards and ate my bagels, oblivious to any soy sauce flavor that may or may not have been there. In any case, cooking tofu in the toaster is totally worth doing, despite potential toaster-flavored side effects.

I cranked up the settings on the toaster to high, and the tofu slices went through about six or so rounds of being toasted. Soon enough they were done, and ready to cool and be sliced for some tofu sushi.

I chopped up several chunks for nigiri, and sliced some more for regular rolls. The nigiri got garnished with some spicy mayo plus scallions.

So, tofu nigiri. Definitely had mixed feelings about it. I’m not sure if I needed to marinate the blocks more, or have more spicy mayo, but the nigiri wasn’t quite as good as I was hoping for. Not bad, mind you, but not necessarily something I’d really look to make again. This is an issue I have with tofu when I make it. I’ve had some darn good tofu in my day, but always at a restaurant where someone else makes it. Maybe it just doesn’t work well as a main ingredient in sushi, not sure. I mean, I’m pretty happy with the texture now that I’ve got this toaster thing all figured out, but I feel like it needs to be sitting in something saucy and flavorful to really make it work. This is only the second time I’ve made tofu in this manner, and I’m hoping that, if nothing else, toasted tofu will make an excellent curry ingredient at some point.

Oh yeah, I also have some eggplant just dying to be killed off, so I thought I’d experiment with that as well. A little too squishy for my tastes, might have worked with some unagi sauce dribbled on top, but unagi sauce I was lacking, so it was simply flaccid nigiri.

However, if you combine the two above ingredients into a roll everything works much better. I have no picture of it, alas, but I made a roll with tofu, eggplant, and spicy mayo, and it worked out quite well. It helped that I had a bunch of the spicy mayo in it, and I feel like the rice to tube innards ratio was ideal.

Here’s how I laid out a futomaki roll with pretty much every ingredient I was using:

Giant, glorious, and full of stuff. Much like your mom. I’m not sure how much I’ll look to using tofu in sushi in the future. I’ve not had much luck with it. And then, there’s also this: If I really want some meatless sushi, I’ve got egg. Tamago is so freaking good with it’s sugarey eggtasticness that I’m not sure I really need to keep pushing the tofu thing for sushi. Tamago is the non-meat of the gods. Well, unless the gods are vegan. In that case, we are all screwed.

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6 Comments

BetsyMarch 21, 2010 11:59 am

Don't give up on tofu yet! The press and bake method would be perfect for this: http://lowcarbdiets.about.com/od/maindishes/r/bak… I like to make a marinade of soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, sugar (or other sweetener), garlic, ginger, pepper and siracha. 30 minutes to marinate is good, 1 hour or more is best.

Maija HaavistoJune 20, 2012 8:55 am

The best sushi filling I've found is vegan "eel" which I buy in Chinatown (which probably isn't anything like eel). It's made of tofu, but is nicely chewy is smeared with the best chili sauce ever. Even my very picky omni husband loves it.

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The best sushi filling I've found is veggie lover "eel" which I purchase in Chinatown (which presumably isn't anything like eel). It's made of tofu, yet is pleasantly chewy is spread with the best bean stew sauce ever. Indeed, even my extremely particular omni spouse cherishes it.